Skip to main content

Masks...



In a few weeks time Sally and I are heading over to London for a bit of a break and while we’re there we hope to take in an exhibition in the British Museum on the Egyptian Book of the Dead… It may sound a bit dull or maybe even slightly creepy, but I am fascinated by Egyptian culture… I was particularly frustrated not to get to see the Tutankhamun exhibits at the O2 in London a couple of years ago… Maybe I’ll just have to arrange a wee trip to Egypt to see them…
The name of Tutankhamun actually means “The living image of [the god] Amon” although it is thought that he actually changed his name from “Tutankhaten” meaning, The Living image of Aten” when there was a religious revolution which meant that Aten, the god of his father, the heretical monotheist Akhenaten, fell out of favour and the older deity Amon became the national god again…
While he was said to be the image of one god or another, it is ironic that we only know what King Tut looks like insofar as his image is reflected in the famous gold funeral mask…
In scripture we are told that human beings are created in the image of God… yet how often do we hide that image behind a mask?
Sometimes it is a physical mask applied with make-up each morning, to hide blemishes or to help us to conform to what the world sees as beautiful or acceptable…
More often it is a psychological mask that we apply to stop people seeing how we are really feeling…
I've usually only worn make-up while on stage... (although my dear wife discovered a "Dead Sea Mud Mask for Men in her basket of cosmetics and other potions the other day and suggests that I try it out... It won't be any day soon) but the actors in the ancient world wore masks rather than make-up... And got the name "hypocrite" or mask-wearer. Jesus gave that term another meaning when he applied it to Pharisees who went through the motions of religion without any reality behind it... Because of that I've always been wary of being seen as an actor playing a part when leading worship or working with people in pastoral difficulties. I try to abide be the old computing principle of WYSIWYG... what you see is what you get... But even in computing that is a fraud, because behind what you see is a whole other world of computer coding and programming that creates the illusion of simplicity. And behind our public face there is always much more going on that most people see... Sometimes, for our own safety and sanity, and to prevent how we are feeling from getting in the way of us helping others, the masks we wear are more elaborate and all encompassing than at other times.


But whatever mask we wear, for whatever reason, let's remember that God sees behind the mask… He wants us to know that he loves us just the way we are… But wants to help us to reflect his image more freely and fully…

(An adaptation of one of my Just a Moment's for Downtown this week)
Shalom
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more